It’s been months since I posted on my English blog! But I have not been idle – read all about it in these two editions of “The Adventures of the Dutch Comic Artist Laureate” (originally drawn for comics magazine Stripnieuws)…:
Advertisements
Author: Margreet de Heer
Dutch graphic novelist, known for her educational series 'A Discovery in Comics', featuring 'Philosophy', 'Science' and 'Religion'. In the works: 'World Domination' and 'Love'. Margreet lives and works in Amsterdam with her artistic husband Yiri and their black cat Toto.
Peter van Dongen and the Clear Line
One of my duties as Comic Artist Laureate of The Netherlands is awarding the prestigious Stripschapprijs to this year’s recipient, Peter van Dongen.
The first months as Comic Artist Laureate of The Netherlands
In October, I was voted Comic Artist Laureate of The Netherlands. What has happened since? Well, among other things, I drew this comic about the first few months…
Death of a Cat
Our cat Toto has died, well over eighteen years old. For us at-home-working, childfree artists, out cats have always been much more than just pets to us – they are life companions…
Our cats have always found their way into our work. Here’s the last drawing of Toto in the Discovery-series (the book about Love, to be released at a later date by NMB):
The Story of Our Love
This week, Yiri and I celebrate nine years of marriage and ten years of being together! The funny thing is, I remember saying on our second day or so: “I’m sure that in ten years we’ll still be together, and basically still feeling for each other what we’re feeling now.” And I was right.
These pages are from our graphic novel about Love, which came out in The Netherlands last year, and may be appearing in the US later this year…
Happy New Year!
A good new year to all!
This year’s card features a background by famous Dutch illustrator Anton Pieck – it’s a view of the Schreierstoren in Amsterdam. There’s no skating on the canals at the moment, but hey, we can dream…
Workshop
I rarely give workshops for kids anymore, but when I was invited by my local primary school for an interview with the editors of the school magazine, I thought it would be a good idea to make the event into a mini-workshop. And it worked out great!
There were six kids and they were all so enthusiastic and creative! One of them even had made me a special drawing, with me in it!
I had not really planned anything solid, but as soon as I drew some examples of how you can set up your own comic character, they were off…
If there’s anything I like to get across about drawing comics, it’s to have FUN with it. Fun always translates. The rest is just handy tips & tricks about using thick markers so your lines are solid, adding black to make it look instantly professional, and putting jokes in.
In the meantime, they asked me questions for the school paper interview. They ranged from “Do you have hobbies beside comics?” (Yes: writing) to “Is that your real hair color?” (No).
At the end, I offered to make them all a drawing per their request – and the result reads almost like a comic:
Lots of thanks to the Rosa Boekdrukkerschool in Amsterdam and Mechteld Jansen, who helps out with the school paper and invited me to do this. It was great fun!
